How should brands handle creative director transitions?
“Large brands are very used and ready to navigate in such a context [of rumours and gossip],” says Floriane de Saint Pierre, the founder of her eponymous consulting firm. “Today, more than ever, transitions need to be well prepared in advance and confidentiality protected.”
Once the designer hire is made, retention strategies can help to reduce fears around jobs being lost under new creative directorships. One pragmatic solution is to promise severance packages if a team member chooses to leave or is let go, at least three months to a year in most cases, Harvey says. But executives can also encourage incoming designers to spend time with the current team before deciding to make drastic cuts. “The codes of the house are embedded in this team, and that could be very valuable, even if the designer does choose to walk away from those codes. Understanding the historical foundation is essential,” she says, adding that it’s typical for new creative director hires and executives to hash out team details and specific hires as well as changes in negotiation deals. This gives leadership teams space to ensure a transitional strategy is intact.
“A wise executive team will make sure to create an environment where they recognise from a retention perspective that this [transition] won’t be easy,” says Harvey.
Where do we go from here?
One way to lessen the disruption inside fashion houses and quieten the rumour mill is to give creative directors time to grow into and succeed in their new jobs.
Experts say that, considering the mounting pressure on designer debuts, executives must hold firm and stand by the creatives they’ve hired, even if they get off to a slow start. The nature of the creative director job today spans more than just designing collections, and actualising a vision for a brand takes time. “Management has to make a good choice [in hiring], but they also have to support and get behind the creative team. Designers are arriving at a new brand, cracking the DNA, translating that to commercial success, aligning the store, service and advertising,” Pagès says. “Even though designers arrive with very precise visions, they need time to train the team.”
Harvey agrees. “That executive who’s making that choice, or those groups of executives, have to own it and help make it work. I don’t ascribe to this idea of hiring a very important creative leader and then leaving them to just go do it,” she says. “They need to hold that space for them to find their way a little bit. There doesn’t seem to be that communication when things are going south. We owe it to the creatives to not ruin their careers over an abrupt change. In a world where transparency is more desired, there are ways to do that.”
This season, two designers proved that good things take time. Daniel Lee at Burberry (now in his fifth season) and Seán McGirr at Alexander McQueen (in his third) received positive reviews for their most recent showings, after both got off to tepidly received starts. “Creativity in design has become a questionably disposable commodity at so many buffeted-in-business fashion houses lately. This Burberry collection demonstrated the virtues of weathering the storm,” Leitch wrote of Burberry AW25 in his review for Vogue. McGirr, meanwhile, showed his AW25 collection to audible cheers.
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